Report: Sex offender escapes from detention center

Bruce Alan Young, who was convicted of raping patients at a Citrus County hospital, escaped from a DeSoto County detention center early this morning, according to Bay News 9.

Authorities are still searching for him.

Young was last accounted for about 1:30 a.m. Friday at the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia, which is southeast of Sarasota.

As a nurse at Citrus Memorial Hospital, Young raped and molested sedated female patients. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges in 1995.

Young's prison term expired in 2005, but the state continued to hold him at the Arcadia Center under the Jimmy Ryce Act, which allows the government to hold sexual predators if they're believed likely to reoffend.

Young asked for release in 2007 with plans to move to St. Petersburg.